This is why regardless of what you are thinking, Bitcoin will remain; with or without support. It exists not thanks to governments, central banks or financial institutions, but in spite of them.
I have no doubt that Bitcoin will survive, as long as there are people who see something valuable in it and of course as long as there is the internet that is necessary to be able to do transactions and mining at all. If we have concluded that no one can destroy BTC literally, can we agree that it is possible to cripple it quite a bit if, say, a powerful country like the USA at some point decides to become completely hostile to it?
Let’s not forget that the US has the largest crypto exchange, almost 90% (approximately) of all existing crypto ATMs are there, and the companies currently in focus (MicroStrategy & Grayscale) are also US companies. Also say that Bitcoin exists without the blessing of governments and their financial institutions is not a correct assumption, because if it is so why Bitcoin is not accepted at the same or similar level in other countries of the world?
It is completely wrong to ignore the power of the governments of the world’s most powerful nations, a single piece of paper on which the world’s most powerful people would put their signature would be far more devastating than any attacks on the web, miners or exchanges.
Yes it may be crippled but not destroyed. I didn't say they can't harm, just that they can't destroy it. Those are two separate things. At this point i don't think the US would go hostile, but other countries like Russia, China are doing damage. And yet, their population finds their way. China is the largest bitcoin user which is ironic as its semi-banned in there. Main reason is of course that bitcoin lets the "new" rich elite class to bypass the idiotic gov restrictions to the economy, such as moving your wealth around.
Now the US would be fools to cripple this freedom enhancing tool. In fact their heavy regulation to it seems to fixate their attitude about it, not bad but not good either. At least they don't throw people into prison for having or using bitcoin, you are supposed to voluntarily surrender your privacy to them. To what amount people will do that? We will never know, but i doubt EVERYONE will ever disclose ALL their funds. I think the gov should stick to taxing sales if you are going to keep an old fashioned State running. You may be able to track every bitcoin, but you can track the inventory of (physical) goods.
Govs going hostile to bitcoin can even potentially increase its price, its the scarcity and demand thing all over again. It could even rise its popularity even more by sort of Streisand effect (ie: "if the gov bans it, it must be good")
OP is implying that at any time any country can make Bitcoin disappear overnight, this is simply not true, no single gov or even coalition of countries, can pull that. Like the internet, Bitcoin was made to survive under adverse conditions. Current conditions not only are not adverse, but globally in favor.
Also, there is an economic weight. Any country that bans bitcoin, is saying "no" to an extra source of wealth. People who want to do business using Bitcoin will simply take their money elsewhere. For example if you have 3 tropical Caribbean islands with similar resorts/services, but only one of them accepts bitcoin, where will you go? Its that simple. Deny Bitcoin, and you deny extra income to your country. Great job politician...
10 years later this is the current state of Hashrate distribution among the different mining pools in the last 4 days. How is this anywhere near mining cartel centralization?
Hashrate distribution over the last 3 years. Notice how Unknown mining pools have been on the rise in 2020
Yes but aside from Slush all those pools are Chinese. This is what they mean, based in the currently fashionable American official policy of blaming China for their own mistakes, that at any moment, those Chinese pools may collide and do "something" harmful.
There is no need to do anything, as mining becomes more unprofitable, China is also becoming too expensive to mine there, the "problem" is fixing itself. Some large miners are already moving their operations around to cheaper rate lands while others simply shrink or move into another business with the money they made. Of course as the Chinese miners reduce, so will their pools.
